


On Catching Clouds

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Series: Cradle 'verse [18]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aria is Reborn's Daughter, Flame Active Character(s), Gen, POV Skull (Reborn), Side Story, Unconventional Uses for Dying Will Flames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 05:31:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12550212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: Part of theCradle 'verse: Skull's side of some of the events inAn Inherited Burden. An apology, an offer, a sparring match, and a Sky.





	On Catching Clouds

It’s not like Aria to be so blunt, or to wield her Sky Flames as a weapon, and he sulks in his seat in her limousine. "Skull, take off the helmet and look at me, please." Her voice coaxed him, and he fought the urge to lash out with his Cloud Flames. His boundaries felt trampled on, and having Oodako turned on him only made things _worse_. Aria sighed and dialed her Sky Flames right down, and he grumbled, but did remove his helmet. He looks at her a little petulantly, and he can see that she wants to laugh; he wonders why. "I owe you an apology. I visited Verde immediately before you, and he's been banned from the Cavallone Estates for attempting human experimentation on one of the Cavallone wards." He eyes her, and he wants to snatch Oodako away when she reaches out a finger to his companion and strokes one of the octopus's tentacles gently. "I envy the six of you your companions, Skull. Not having one when Mama did makes me feel like a poor substitute for her when it comes to Arcobaleno matters; I would feel better if I had a companion to help keep an eye on my little girl."

He feels his eyes widen; she was part of his territory, for all that he hid it, and he hadn’t noticed that she’d given birth - how could she have a daughter? When had she? He also feels Gamma's Flames flare at Aria’s mention of her daughter, and he wonders if it’s because her Lightning didn’t know, or if there was another reason? Did someone need to have a _talk_ to him about the care and feeding of a Sky Arcobaleno? He wonders if this had something to do with the curse, or with the visions she shared with her mother. "You have a daughter?" He’d settle for a confirmation of that, first.

"Mhmm. And now I’ve admitted to her existence, I want you to be her godfather." His Flames flare in pleasure at the offer of her daughter - a baby Sky, judging by the feel of Aria’s Flames - as _his_ territory. But intellectually -

"You want the great Skull-sama to be her godfather?!" Aria’s lips curve into a smile, at his surprise, he assumed. And he was surprised; a Sky child to guard was a gesture of trust that he’d _never_ expected from her. If he’d been forced to say which of them would get to be godparents to a child of Aria, it would have been Fon, or Lal, or Renato. Not him.

"She has Renato as a grandfather, and she's going to be a Mafia Donna, Skull. She needs to know how to have fun, too, and someone who will come to her aid no questions asked. Not with the Mafia, but with being a teenager; especially given the example I've set her." Aria looks a little sheepish, but given how young she'd had her daughter, and given that she’d inherited the curse from her mother, and it was entirely possible her daughter would inherit the curse, too ... he nods sharply; being a bad example and enabling Aria’s daughter to get into the sort of mischief that _should_ come with _Reborn_ as a grandparent would be fun. Getting to taunt Reborn about it, too, would be even more entertaining.

"The great Skull-sama will be her godfather." He sees the moment she realises exactly what he was thinking, and sees her temptation to facepalm. "The great Skull-sama will be the _best_ godfather." He settles back in the seat, his helmet beside him, his pacifier glowing a soft purple. The Sky Arcobaleno - not his Sky, never his Sky, but still a Sky he cares for - smiles at him.

“Thank you, Skull. Her name is Yuni. And if I have my way, she will be the _last_ Sky Arcobaleno.” The two of them sit in silence for the rest of the journey to the Cavallone Villa. He eyes her warily when the limousine comes to a halt. There's a little too much amusement in her Flames; especially given she doesn't have her own Cloud, and should be _trying_ to lure him in, not hand him off to another Sky. "Oh don't worry Skull." Except that only makes him worry more; especially given he can feel another Cloud lurking outside of the limousine, waiting to pounce.

"The great Skull-sama isn't _worried_." He pointedly _doesn't_ put his helmet back on again, and steps out of the limousine. The other Cloud drops out of a tree, and he side steps just in time and drops his helmet with a squeak. He's younger than he expected, the other Cloud. But then he's met very few other Primary Clouds; most of those who the mafia refers to as Clouds have it as a Secondary and use it as an excuse to _not_ have to deal with social niceties.

"Are you someone I can bite to death?" He squeaks. The other Cloud is a doppelgänger of Fon, and that's _terrifying_. Oodako responds reflexively to his Flame flaring, starting to grow, and Aria makes an amused sound from behind him.

"You can't bite Skull all the way to death, Kyoya; he's cursed in the same way as your grandfather is, and as you're a Cloud, if you bite him to death, you'll have to carry the pacifier in his place. But you can teach each other a lot about your Flames." He's actually half-relieved by Aria's intervention; he shapes the other Cloud's name thoughtfully, and then he blinks at the purple and dark blue outlined tonfas. He's not ashamed that he squeaks again; he remembers what Fon was like _before_ he'd managed to calm his Storm, and the all out fights between him and Renato prior to the Fated Day.

Oodako and more than forty years of learning to use his Cloud Flames by trial and error - whilst mafioso tried to kill or suborn him - are the only things that save him from serious injury. That and that despite not being a Sun, his Flames had figured out self-healing even before he'd known what they were. The baby Cloud he's tutoring - and take that Renato, he the great Skull-sama _could_ teach - is fast and vicious and feral, and the fight between them is an odd sort of joyful. He's got so used to holding himself back, and sabotaging himself that it's _fun_ fighting at full strength. Especially since the area of the Cavallone Estate that the baby Cloud leads him to is soaked in Mist Flames so it can take the damage.

The two of them are still going at it hammer and tongs when four Skies. _Four_ Skies - it's the most he's ever felt in one place, and their harmonies are mesmerising. It's the way they're wrapping around each other - Aria is on the periphery, but the other three might even in be in full resonance - all emphasising different things, but working _together_. It stuns him just long enough for Kyoya to manage to pounce on him, and he's going to have to see if Mammon can make those boots work for a non-Mist; if he hadn't been a self-healer that would have _killed_ him. But he also now knows what Aria was talking about in the limousine. The Sky at the centre of that Harmony - not Xanxus, nor the little Primo clone, but the Cavallone most people dismiss - calls to him, and he can feel his Flames reaching out to him.

He allows them to wrap around him, and _oh_. He's warm, and _this_ is what being in a Sky's Set means? That made the other Arcobalenos' behaviour make so much more _sense_. The Cavallone’s Flames insulate him from the curse, making him feel so much _lighter_.

“I leave Skull in your hands, Dino Cavallone. Look after him; he deserves to be cherished.”


End file.
